Ham Radio operators from Middle Tennessee will be joining in a National Deployment and Public Demonstration of Emergency Communications June 22nd & 23rd at Old Stone Fort State Park, at Manchester, TN.

The Middle Tennessee Amateur Radio Society (MTARS), a group of local area ham radio operators will be showing off their emergency capabilities in a two-day field day event, this weekend at Old Stone Fort.

Members of the Middle Tennessee Amateur Radio Society will be on hand Saturday and Sunday starting at 8 am Saturday till 1 pm Sunday to demonstrate how amateur radio works. The club is inviting the public to come on out, join in the fun and see ham radio's new capabilities. While here, you can learn how to get your own FCC Amateur Radio license to actively participate in the fun or maybe to help provide emergency communications when the next disaster strikes.

Any licensed ham radio operators (club members or not) who might be in the local area, are cordially invited to stop by, bring the family and operate a station. Or just meet and chat with other area hams, and / or bring a covered dish and stay for our annual summer picnic, being held on-site, around 6 PM, Saturday evening, June 22rd. If you have 2 meter Amateur Radio capabilities, check in with us on the local VHF repeater (146.70 MHz 114.8 tone)

This annual event called Field Day is the climax of the Amateur Radio Week sponsored by the American Radio Relay League, the national association for amateur radio.

Over the past year, the news has been full of reports of ham radio operators providing critical communications during unexpected emergencies in towns across America including the Texas wildfires, winter storms, tornadoes and other events both local and worldwide. During Hurricane Katrina, Amateur Radio - often called Ham Radio - was often the ONLY way people could communicate, and hundreds of volunteer hams traveled south to save lives and property.

When trouble is brewing, Amateur Radio's people are often the first to provide rescuers with critical information and communications. Local Manchester, Tullahoma and Winchester area ham radio operators will be on hand here this weekend, to demonstrate what Amateur Radio Service is about, showing the newest digital and satellite capabilities, voice communications and even historical Morse code. We will be communicating with other ham groups at locations all across the USA and Canada, who will be holding similar public demonstrations of their emergency communications capabilities.

Using only emergency power, ham operators will construct emergency stations in parks, shopping malls, schools and backyards around the country. Their slogan, "When All Else Fails, Ham Radio Works" is more than just words to the hams as they prove they can send messages in many forms without the use of phone systems, internet or any other infrastructure that can be compromised in a crisis. More than 30,000 amateur radio operators across the country participated in last year's event.

"We hope that people will come and see for themselves, this is not your grandfather's radio anymore, " said Allen Pitts, W1AGP, of the ARRL. "The communications that ham radio people can quickly create have saved many lives when other systems failed or were overloaded ". And besides that..

>>> IT'S FUN <<<

There are over 750,000 Amateur Radio licensees in the US, and more than 2.8 million around the world. Through the ARRL's Amateur Radio Emergency Services program, ham volunteers provide emergency communications for thousands of state and local emergency response agencies, all for free. To learn more about the Middle Tennessee Amateur Radio Society, "click" on "MTARS". To learn more about Amateur Radio, "click" on the "ARRL"